Minter: Hall Candidates Lists Should Start With Allison

Bobby Allison tops the list of candidates for this year's inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame (Photo courtesy of NASCAR)

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com

With balloting for the NASCAR Hall of Fame just around the corner, there’s already speculation about who’ll make the second class. Surely David Pearson, who was passed over the first time around, will be a shoo-in. Likewise, Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip should go it, which could make for an interesting induction ceremony since neither former champion appears to have much use for the other.

Allison, in a recent interview, was as diplomatic as he’s ever been when discussing the possibility of being inducted alongside his long-time rival.

“Right now they have us tied in wins. If I get Winston-Salem, I’m one ahead of (Waltrip),” Allison said, referring to the race he and many others believe he won but somehow doesn’t get credit for. “We started out having a really good friendship. In fact I built cars for the guys he drove for early in his career. His first win was probably in a car I built for them, a Late Model Sportsman car. As he moved into the higher ranks, he just didn’t seem to want to retain the friendship.”

That Winston-Salem race still sticks in Allison’s craw, especially since it would give him 85 career wins, one more than Waltrip.

Back in the day when Winston representatives kept the records, the papers submitted to the press each week showed Allison with 85 career victories. Now the record books say otherwise. Allison isn’t buying it.

“I won a race in Melvin Joseph’s Mustang at Bowman Gray Stadium (in 1971 in Winston-Salem, N.C.),” he said. “Richard Petty ran second that night. For a couple of years it counted, and all of a sudden it came out. I thought they gave the win to Richard Petty, and of course the Pope isn’t going to take a win away from Richard Petty, It’s gone forever.

“I found out later that somebody had dropped mine and two of Tiny Lund’s that he won in his Camaro. A few years before Bill France Jr. died they reinstated Tiny’s two wins. Bowman Gray doesn’t have a winner, so that gives me 85.”

No matter how that issue, which arose because of cars from two different divisions competing in Cup, is ever resolved, there’s much more to Bobby Allison’s resume than just what he accomplished in the Cup division. Like Kyle Busch today, he’d race any car anywhere, and win more often than not.

“I won a lot of races in lot of different divisions,” he said. “I have no idea how many total. I had accounted for 610 including Sportsman, ASA and USAC, and those USAC races were major events. I won on lots of Saturday night tracks.

“On the Tuesday night of the week I was done in at Pocono, I won at Slinger Speedway (a short track in Wisconsin). It was about the fifth time I had won at Slinger, the Slinger Nationals. It paid good, and people from all over the country were there for it.”

So it’s no surprise that Allison is a big backer of Busch today.

“I have a lot of respect for Kyle Busch, especially on the same weekend to get out of a truck and into a Nationwide car and out of Nationwide car and into a Cup car and perform like he does,” Allison said. “Whatever he’s in, he drives 100 percent…Nobody is better. He really is doing the best job, start to finish.”

Allison is no big fan of the COT, and he’s not afraid to criticize NASCAR, even though he’d really like to be in the new Hall of Fame.

“I think the fans really, really responded to Ford, Dodge, and back in the old days Plymouth and Buick and whatever,” he said. “This new car, even though it’s really well thought out, really super safe and all that, it has lost some attraction to some of the fans.”

And he doesn’t believe the sport needs the level playing field that the car is intended to give.

“Whoever wanted a level playing field?” Allison asked. “Tip it a little in my favor some way or another.”

Allison also seems to still be disappointed in how his 1988 Pocono crash, and his long recovery from it, played out.

“NASCAR’s insurance didn’t pay for my deal at Pocono,” he said. “About seven years ago I finally paid it off. I sold all my antique cars, airplanes, tools, and learned how to tell stories.”

3 Comments »

Just saw Bobby last Saturday night when he made an appearance at Huntsville Speedway. He’s always been and continues to be, a class act and one of the best drivers to ever drive a race car. He should be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame ASAP.

Pearson was the best stock car driver ever to take the wheel in a NASCAR race…..period….now we go from there…..
I have no problem with Bobby Allison in second group….BUT…..
he can only head the 2nd list IF DAVID PEARSON is righly placed on the first list instead of IRONHEAD and little France……
Dale Sr. would be 3rd list at best if I had a vote…..Frnace Jr. maybe 3rd or 4th

Bobby was one of the greatest ever. I was lucky enough to grow up in Mobile & Pensacola and I went to school in Birmingham so I saw him on the short tracks on a regular basis. He & Donnie were my heroes and it was never more fun than when those two were battling each other for a win and it was a battle.

Bobby was a great influence on this sport not only as a driver but as a coach, teacher and car builder. If you just look at the guys he helped become winners like Neil Bonnett, Hut Strickland, Davey & Clifford you would see what an influence he had on NASCAR and racing in general. The man could drive anything!

He was never one of those guys that NASCAR loved, they seemed to always be fighting about something but he was one of those characters that made NASCAR what it is. He said what he thought, he drove his butt off, he built and maintained most of his stuff and he won a lot! Very few of todays Cup regulars can compare to Bobby, Donnie, Darrell, Richard, David & Cale. They were a totaly different breed. They never moved over and let a guy get his lap back, not even their brother. They raced to win and worried about the points after it was all said and done. It was not about who had the coolest sunglasses, the newest motorcoach or the hottest girlfriend, it was about winning and doing so by lapping the field.

It is not surprising that Bobby would be a big fan of Kyle Busch because just like Kyle he was behind the wheel anytime he had the chance to be there and he was winning. When that red & gold 12 pulled into the pit area everybody else in the pits knew they had to out run that car to win and their work was cut out for them.